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Oral history recording in English with Damiana ("Dina") Ruggiero. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Part 2 of 5 (AV 11469-11473)

00.01 Damiana travelled all around Italy and was in Germany for almost three years before she returned to her home. Damiana’s father was a builder so was able to buy another house after the war however Damiana was away for some time after the war. Damiana worked as a seamstress for six and a half years, she recalls getting to grips with the electric machine and that machine breaking once [difficult to understand]. The community was very good she says, they worked on farms or as electricians or builders. On the land they grew wheat, Indian corn, beans, chick peas. She recalls it as a wonderful time. They would eat three times a day, in the fields during the day, all together at home in the evening with wine, salami, pasta, and vegetables. Her mother would sit proudly at the table, happy to see all her children.

07.07 During and after the war everything changed. There are roads everywhere now. She was taken prisoner by German soldiers during the war. When the war started, everything carried on as usual, however Damiana remembers when German soldiers arrived in the area and started to destroy everything. They had to leave their home and go up into the mountains, they lost everything that was in their home. After that, in the mountains she was taken. She had gone to thrash the corn and didn’t return for two and a half years. She doesn’t know how she survived. She wasn’t the only one to be caught, many people were taken. All the men hid underground so that they wouldn’t be taken prisoner or to fight. They were never able to return to their home as it was taken over.

12.50 Damiana describes how her daughter was 21 months when she travelled to Wales with her on her own. She recalls her husband asking her if she wanted to come to Wales, her father told her to go. She also recalls meeting with her mother again and her mother’s joy at seeing Antoinette again, she says ‘your children are your children, but your grandchildren are dearer’.